Fans react to ‘racist’ Atticus Finch
Harper Lee’s new book Go Set a Watchman — written in the 1950s but only now being published — is turning out to be a huge talker.
In Watchman, we discover that Atticus Finch, the heroic father figure from Lee’s beloved 1960 Southern novel To Kill a Mock
ingbird, is a bigot. The revelation has set Twitter on fire and prompted debate among critics who have reviewed the novel, which goes on sale Tuesday.
For readers, it’s like learning there is no Santa Claus.
On Twitter, some Mockingbird fans say they’ll boycott the book, while others want to give it a chance. “No matter how good it may be I think it will break my heart to read it,” said one tweet, while another said the Atticus news makes Watchman a “must
read.”
Watchman is considered an early draft of Mockingbird; Lee, now 89, set it aside after her editor suggested she instead turn to the story of Scout Finch as a child.
Mockingbird became a classic novel of tolerance, with Atticus teaching generations of readers not to judge a man by his skin color. In Watchman, Scout (now called Jean Louise and in her 20s) returns home in the 1950s to Maycomb, Ala., where she discov- ers that her father is not the saint she, or we, thought he was.
Reviews so far have been largely mixed, with many critics calling the Atticus story troubling, even shocking.
“Go Set a Watchman is a distressing book, one that delivers a startling rebuttal to the shining idealism of To Kill a Mockingbird. This story is of the toppling of idols; its major theme is disillusion,” wrote The Wall Street
Journal.
Said The New York Times: “Shockingly, in Ms. Lee’s longawaited novel, Go Set a Watch
man, Atticus is a racist who once attended a Klan meeting, who says things like ‘The Negroes down here are still in their childhood as a people.’ Or asks his daughter: ‘ Do you want Negroes by the carload in our schools and churches and theaters?’ ”
Publisher HarperCollins responded: “The question of Atticus’ racism is one of the most important and critical elements in this novel, and it should be considered in the context of the book’s broader moral themes.” A number of critics say Watchman shines new light on Mock
ingbird, a classroom staple, and raises fascinating questions.
USA TODAY’s review said, “If you think of Watchman as a young writer’s laboratory, it provides valuable insight into the generous, complex mind of one of America’s most important authors.”